Ukrainian Archaeology, 2016 52 Iryna О. Chechulina * ATTIC BLACK-GLAZED STAMPED WARE FROM OLBIA © I.О. CHECHULINA, 2017 * ЧЕЧУЛІНА Ірина Олексіївна — лаборант від- ділу античної археології Інституту археології НАНУ, студентка Національного університету ім. Т. Шевченка, irusia500@gmail.com The article is devoted to the variants of Attic black-glazed pottery with stamps during the Classical period of Olbia. K e y w o r d s: Classical period, Olbia, Attic black-glazed pottery, stamped ornament. Finds of Attic tableware and ceremonial ware in the North Black Sea region are mass, and that is why they are so important since they provide infor- mation for detailed chronology of ancient materi- al. The black-glazed ware with stamps can be par- ticularly distinguished in this vast number of finds, because stamps together with the morphology of forms allow determining the most correct dating of the ware and identifying the type of this ware. Incised and stamped patterns are the most pop- ular decoration techniques of black-glazed pot- tery. This technique of decoration is considered to evolve in the Attic workshops in the middle of the 5 th century BC (Sparkes, Talcott 1970, p. 22–23). It was commonly used for ornamentation of «open vases» (type of drinking cups), especially inside on the bottom of the vase. Stamps are also known to be found on the outside of «close vases» (oil flasks). Because stamped ornaments changed over time, they serve as the best dating markers not only for this type of pottery, but also for another material that was found along with the black-glazed ware. Any publication dedicated to the research of Ancient Greek acropolis and necropolis in the North Black Sea region contains detailed infor- mation about black-glazed pottery and its dating based on to the stamps. (e.g. Стоянов 2005, 2007; Рогов, Тункина 1985, Рогов 2011; Егорова 2009, 2014 а, б). However, stamps on the Attic black-glazed pot- tery from Olbia have been scarcely analyzed at the modern stage of study. For today, we know only three research works which provide analysis of the material from different parts of polis: the Eastern temenos (Русяева, Назарчук 2006), the Northern part of the Lower city (Handberg, Petersen 2010) and the Central quarter (Назарчук 2014). Further- more, there is still no complete information about Attic black-glazed pottery with stamps from Olbia during the Classical period, and about the variety of decorative elements on the pottery from archae- ological assemblages that would help us to make general conclusions about overall import dynamics of this pottery. That is why this research work ded- icated to stamps on the open shape black-glazed pottery is the first approach to the study of this im- portant archaeological source. All the stamps can be divided into those contain- ing floral or geometric elements: ovules, palmettes, lotus flowers, ivy leaves, an olive branch, a mean- der, leaves, boxed triangles, diamonds (Sparkes, Talcott 1970, p. 25–26). The ovules had appeared on the pottery since the late 5 th century BC. They did not exist separate- ly and were usually combined with other elements. The most popular motif used together with ovules was palmettes, the amount of which in the centre of a stamp could vary from three to twelve palmettes. A palmette consisted from a volute base and a spread- ing array of petals. The shape of a palmette varied from a long, open one to a tight palmette. They could be with ovule or sharp volutes, with separated volutes or almost merged with petals (Talcott 1935, p. 487). Palmettes could be combined with radial incised lines (Егорова 2009, с. 20). In the 5 th and the first half of the 4 th centuries BC, complex ornamentations with palmettes pre- vailed, they included ovules, arcs, and circles of dif- ferent size. At the end of the 5 th century, palmettes and circles without ovules appeared. Since the middle of the 4 th century, ovules had disappeared; they were replaced by different amount of inci- sions, which from the last quarter of the 4 th century outlined the palmettes. Ornament of palmettes and incisions was the most popular ornament for the pottery at the end of the 4 th and in the first part of the 3 rd centuries BC, which makes it the main dat- ing marker of this time. Since the second quarter of the 3 rd century BC, stamps had slowly disappeared from the common use (Егорова 2014б, с. 176). Lotus flowers are rare decorative elements that do not seem to have survived until the 4 th century BC. During the Hellenistic period, this technique was practically absent, and lotus flowers ornamented mainly bowls and plates of the late 4 th and the first part of the 3 rd centuries BC as continuation of the